The Board and staff of Community Action of Southern Kentucky (CASOKY) are excited to reveal their new mission. ‘We team with community partners to provide human services with dignity and respect, empowering people in Southern Kentucky to achieve stability and economic security.’

Community Action agencies have 50 years of experience in making America a better place to live and were brought about by the Economic Opportunity Act in 1964. CASOKY, like other Community Action agencies, is constantly adapting to the needs of the communities served. A major funding source, which designates Community Action agencies, is the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG). In the next year, Community Action Agencies will have 58 CSBG Standards that will need to be upheld. One of those is to ensure our Board of Directors has approved that the mission of the agency addresses poverty and contains four components (services, relationships, outcomes, and population).

“We used customer and staff feedback to develop our new mission statement with our leadership team and Board. We are very excited to have a renewed mission and focus. I love our new mission. It says exactly what we do and all staff and Board members will be able to better speak to how we are changing people and changing lives in our communities,” said Melissa J. Weaver, CEO/Executive Director of CASOKY.

Along with the mission statement, the CASOKY leadership team developed a vision, elevator speech, beliefs, values and guiding principles.

CASOKY has defined their vision as the National Community Action Promise:

Community Action changes people's lives, embodies the spirit of hope, improves communities and makes America a better place to live. We care about the entire community, and we are dedicated to helping people help themselves and each other.

The mission, promise and other items can be found on casoky.org under the About Us section.

“We have a heart for the people in our communities. We believe everyone deserves the opportunity to be safe, clothed, fed, warm, educated, healthy and most of all have hope. It is our privilege and responsibility to help people achieve these things and have access to all resources. This is exactly what we want everyone to know about us. It is our goal to foster great relationships with our customers, staff and our community partners,” stated Weaver.

CASOKY will be having an open house in the fall at their headquarters to celebrate 50 years of service. They would like to invite the entire community to join them in celebrating this milestone and to help paint the new mission on the wall of their central office.

“It’s an exciting time to be a part of Community Action of Southern Kentucky. I want any family or individual to walk through our doors and feel welcome and know that we will strive to get them connected to the resources and help them build the skills they need to achieve stability, economic security and reach their full potential. We want to help eliminate poverty as a team, one family or person at a time,” said Weaver.

To learn more about CASOKY and all of the programs and services click on services. If you would like to volunteer or donate, click on “take action”.